11 Best Practices for taking an offering
Below is a list of 11 wise practices that I implement when taking and handling the offering. Giving is an act of worship and therefore must be thought through and implemented well.
I’m involved. While I have the staff rotate in receiving the offering I personally participate in this quite often.
The WHY. We set up the offering each week with a 2–3 minute vision segment called “why we give.” WHY we give is so much more important that what we give or how we give. When people know WHY they should give they are far more likely to do so. If you don’t have a vision or a reason why they should give then don’t expect them to do so. I have a slide deck of reasons why we give that I rotate and add to often (below is one example). Sometime during that week the same slide will be posted on all of our social media platforms as a reminder. I also routinely tell stories (salvations, baptisms, adding staff members, etc…)and remind people that their giving leads to these stories. And when I have a staff member do the offering I have them follow this exact format.
Lighting. During worship our lights are dimmed. However, I have the lights turned up for the offering. So people can see to write a check. My principle here is to make giving easy.
A Plan. Weekly I encourage people to “have a plan” for giving for the following week. Don’t wait until you get to church next week to decide what to give.
Kids are watching. I keep the kids in the service through the offering and then we dismiss them for their services. We tell the church each week that we are teaching the kids to give. We also encourage parents to let their kids drop their offering in the plate.
Envelope Size. We have offering envelopes that are larger than normal. Those stock envelopes are so small you can barely fit a check in it. So we had custom ones made that are larger and easy to fit in a check. Again, this makes it easier to give.
Giving Options. Speaking of making it easy to give, we offer texting to give, envelopes, a giving kiosk, drop boxes and e-giving.
Security. We have our security team escort the ushers to the safe where the offerings are locked. We have a team of three (on a rotation basis) led by our finance clerk that counts the offering each Monday morning. We also have our finance clerk change the route in which they drive to the bank to make the weekly deposit.
Thank you notes (part 1). I write a hand written note to all new givers.
Thank you notes (part 2). Every couple years I will methodically write a hand written thank you note to all our regular givers. I’ll write 3–5 per week so it takes the entire year to accomplish.
Giving Statements. We provide updated giving statements a couple times per year. We try to do this in a personal way. 1. I include a thank you letter with a few recent highlights (see the sample below). 2. I have our finance committee pass them out at our giving kiosk on Sunday mornings and personally thank each person for giving.
